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Even though WWE has scrapped the official "Slammy" awards for honouring certain Superstars or tag teams for various accolades throughout a calendar year, it still releases annual awards on the internet. Surprisingly, Braun Strowman was WWE's pick for the Superstar of the Year, even though the monster failed to win anything of importance this year.
However, fans have their say in everything and are now divided between two Superstars who had a brilliant 2018 respectively, Seth Rollins from RAW and Becky Lynch from SmackDown Live. The former has been the Intercontinental champion for the majority of the year whereas the latter was so good that she even elevated the entire women's division.
However, there is one guy who has silently being ignored by both WWE and the fans alike, The phenomenal one, AJ Styles. Styles had a remarkable year, holding the WWE title up until November and scoring wins over many big names.
In this list, we will take a look at three reasons why AJ Styles deserves to be the Superstar of the year 2018.
AJ Styles possesses a kayfabe reason
There are many platforms which give awards by kayfabe and kayfabe only. This one is the primary reason why certain Superstars win "Superstar of the year" ahead of some particular other candidates.
However, AJ Styles has a solid record in 2018. He was the WWE champion for the majority of the year. He has wins over almost every big names on Smackdown LIVE throughout the year. The phenomenal one is even placed fifth in the list of Superstars with most televised wins in 2018.
Thus from a kayfabe point of view, AJ Styles has a strong claim to be the Superstar of the year 2018.
Consistency
The fans often say that AJ Styles can have a good wrestling match even against a broom. AJ Styles, without an iota of doubt, is one of the forerunners running for being the greatest wrestler of this generation. 2018 was no different for the phenomenal. Even though he had some dull moments in the year, he gave us some of the best matches of the year consistently.
Just take a look at his PPV matches this year, they are a level above anyone else.
Styles' first PPV match was against the team of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn - in a peculiar handicap match for the WWE championship. Then he defended his title in a critically acclaimed six pack match at Fastlane.
Some of his matches against Shinsuke Nakamura were underwhelming, but his final encounter with the king of strong style at Money in the Bank was outstanding. He went on to have an array of great matches against the likes of Rusev and Samoa Joe. His final three matches against Daniel Bryan were barn burners.
Fan reactions
In the modern era of wrestling, it is tough to get a babyface who gets constantly cheered by the WWE universe. AJ Styles is one of the rare breeds of such wrestlers. While Braun Strowman got cheered for the most of the year, his heel turn had a negative impact on that.
Rather than getting booed, fans did not even react to a heel Strowman. Even though Seth Rollins had a brilliant fan reception for most of the year, his matches against Dolph Ziggler (30 minutes Ironman match) at Extreme Rules and Dean Ambrose at TLC were heavily ignored by the WWE Universe. Fans also rebuked most of his segments involving the Shield.
However, for AJ Styles, that was not the case. Other than for his Wrestlemania match against Shinsuke Nakamura, the WWE universe was invested deeply in any AJ Styles match in 2018, just watch his match against Daniel Bryan at TLC.
